Buffy's Continuation
by Banshee Lingers
Summary: There is more than the end of Sunnydale. The gang is back together to try to keep the world in order now that there are so many new slayers trying to cope with their new lives. How are the Scoobies going to pull this off?
1. Together Again

_**Even though it's obvious, most of the characters were not created by me, I only borrowed them. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was created by Joss Wendon or something like that but I was unhappy with the ending and wanted to share my own continuation. I do have to give some credit to my kid brother and little sister for helping me come up with ideas of how things might be. Without them the story would be different. Forgive me if I didn't catch the characters true personality, I've tried my best.**_

_This chapter basically reintroduces the characters, explaines their current whereabouts and whats been happening in the past 6 months since the destruction of Sunnydale and it's hellmouth. Buffy wants to keep dawn away from the hellmouth but both know that eventually their friends are going to be done with what they are working on and they'll be living in Cleveland, above another hellmouth. Only more pressure and stress is placed on Buffy's shoulders._

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**CHAPTER 1--Together Again**

The vampire ran head long at Buffy, throwing his arms out and growling. With the natural ease that Buffy had learned after nearly 8 years of slaying vampires, Buffy slid to the side and staked the vamp through the heart. A strangled noise came from him as his face split in wide eyed, open-mouthed pain and shock. His body began to fall toward the ground but before he went to far his body turned to dust and blew into Dawns face as it was carried away by the wind.

"Come on, that's all you got?" Buffy demanded, yelling into the sky. Dawn was busy spitting out vampire dust and picking it out of her eyes but she still managed to glare at her sister.

"Buffy," Dawn said, swishing water into her mouth and spitting it out behind Old Man Wilton's grave stone. "That was your 9th vampire tonight. The last one was stupid and all the others are smart enough to know your in a killing mode tonight. Let's go home."

Buffy made a sound and tried at blowing her sister off as she stood trying to look vulnerable for some stupid and hungry vampire to take a bite out of. "I'm serious Buffy," Dawn yawned and then returned to scowling. "I'm tired and my butt's sore. I haven't seen you like this since…."

Both of them were brought back to their last day in Sunnydale, California, the First, the potentials and Spike. Buffy had taken out vampire by vampire as easily as a baby cried or a person breathed. It had been hard living through another apocalypse and losing more loved ones. Each apocalypse Sunnydale faced was one more way to suck a piece of Buffy.

"Dawnie, I'm anxious. It's been to quiet. Just vampires, no demons, no nothing. Angel isn't saying much about anything to me and I haven't heard from Willow, Giles or the Coven Willow's been staying with. I have a right to feel antsy and I have a right to want to kill. It just so happens that I can kill vampires without facing consequences."

Another yawn escaped Dawn's mouth. "Yeah, we're only sacrificing my much needed and well deserved sleep time." Dawn lay back on her patrol blanket and closed her eyes, hoping to catch some Z's while Buffy negotiated with the empty graveyard in hopes of some vampire taking the bait."

A cracking sound caused Dawn to open her eyes and nearly scream in surprise and shock. Standing above her with a crooked grin and his favorite eye patch was Xander Harris, Buffy's High School friend and a member of their slayer gang, which was nicknamed the Scooby Gang. He had his fingers to his lips and started tip toeing toward Buffy.

Dawn sat up and wanted to call out to Xander, give him a warning but decided against it, wanted to watch the show. The vamps were the same, punch, punch, kick, pun, stake and dust. But Xander would be funny. To bad he had to be hurt to make Dawn laugh.

Xander jumped at Buffy, sticking three fingers in her rip and yelling. Buffy, using her super reflexes shot her arm out and knocked Xander on the ground, did a back flip and landed on a sitting position on his stomach with her knees pinning his arms down and her wooden stake Mr. Pointy jabbing into his chest.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Xander yelled sucking in his breath and pressing into the ground to get away from the pointed end of a deadly weapon. "Jeez, Buf," He said, "Didn't your mom ever tell you that swinging pointy things would poke someones eye out?" His eye patch had fallen off revealing his closed left eye, and the scare where Caleb's thumb had pressed into his socket. Then the eye opened and a very shiny bluish glass eye looked back at her. "Look what you did."

Buffy made a very girly squeal and tossed the steak, giving Xander a huge hug. "C-can't breath…" he gasped. Buffy had a problem with her super strength, which made it hard to hug people and not squeeze their eyes out and crack a couple ribs.

Xander got up and placed his patch over the glass eye again before turning to Dawn, who was practically dancing for her hug. When they saw each other she stood still for a moment, her lips parted. Then she slowly made her way to him and grabbed his broad shoulders. He held her for a moment burying his face in her hair and she held on tight. Then suddenly the both let go and looked away. Buffy seemed to miss this awkward hello and she and Xander started talking.

"What's been going on?" She asked him as she picked her stake up and put it in her stake holster at her ankle. Dawn had made it for her for to hold her stakes in and look cool.

"Let's head back to Angel's, we've got to talk." Xander said. Then he grabbed Dawn's hand after she gathered her blanket and they walked toward Angel's mansion.

"Giles and I have been getting things set up. I fixed up the broken down chateau in Cleveland. It's one of the biggest buildings there that'll be used for living quarters. It's looking nice."

"Wow, a chateau."

"Yeah," Xander glanced at Dawn, looked away again. "You, me, Dawn, Faith and Willow have our own area of the Chateau that's for only us and those we invite. Giles asked for only a guest bedroom. Says he has a lot of other places to be at the same time."

"Wow, we'll all be living in the same house." Buffy murmured.

"Yeah, well it's kind of like a huge house for us, connected to a larger housing area for the girls. Our section has 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, family room and personal gym plus our bedrooms. By your request I put Dawns bedroom right across from yours."

"Buffy!"

"Dawn."

"Guys!" Xander put his hands up. When Dawn glared at him he smiled. "Sorry, Dawn," He said. He didn't use kid, or kiddo like he use to, both Dawn and Buffy noticed that. "Buffy's boss." He turned back to the previous conversation. "Faith asked to be farthest away from squabbling girls, and Willlow asked for soundproofness. I soundproofed the entire section we'll be living in, and Faith has the room with easy access outdoors. Willow and some guy named Frank, from the Coven spun some wild spell that nearly crashed all my windows, but now nobody can invite vamps into the house except Buffy. No exception. Not Faith, not Dawn and not Giles. Only you."

Dawn grunted. "If we have other girls who are fascinated with immortal men they'll hate you Buffy." She sounded almost pleased, but bit her tongue, thinking of Spike.

"You have your own private workout room, like we had at the magic box. You and Faith have to share that. It's also in our parts. The girls who'll be living with us will have their own, along will a huge dining hall and rec room, since family room might not cut it. There's a lot we've been planning and a lot you need to go through."

"It's like Hogwarts!" Dawn squeeled. "No, it's like X-Men." She laughed. "We're Hogswomen! Buffy, you're like the headmaster… or mistress. You're Xavier! How cool is that. And I'm your sister."

"We'll start getting girls in a couple weeks. I was told to warn you that we'll get girls who aren't the real deal. Tests will have to go through, it'll be flooded. We'll have girls that can't speak English, girls that hate us, girls that love us. Some parents want to check it out, and others are ready to bomb the place. Some are runaways who weren't accepted by their family once they changed. And we went through what you said with Faith and she agrees, though she doesn't know what girl won't want it."

"What?" Dawn asked.

"Buffy mentioned that after something like 5 months of training and living with us the girls will have a chance to leave and try to go back to normal lives. Angel said he's acquainted with some people who can help them change their identity if they want, and Giles is forming a new council—"

"What?" Dawn and Buffy blurted at once.

"Not another council, you saw how the last one was!"

"They tried to kill Buffy and half the time refused to help and—"

"Wronged Giles and—"

"C'mon, hey. Hey. HEY!" Xander shouted and both sisters shut up. "Giles will be the head of the council, and Buffy is the Slayer representative followed by Faith and then Kennedy. One of you three will always be at their meetings, and everybody knows Giles is wrapped around Buffy's finger—"

"What an insulting way to put things, Xander."

Being drawn into the progress in Cleveland Buffy and Dawn didn't realize they'd reached Angel's mansion. At the doorway was Giles, behind him Angel, who was dressed in his tall dark and broody clothes. Dawn ran to him, launching into her hug as Buffy and Xander caught up.

"You have to save me, Giles." Dawn was babbling. "Buffy forces me to go with her when Angel isn't here and Angel is never here because he's always doing God knows what God knows when and she's just—"

"—Right here, Dawn."

Dawn smiled sheepishly and then her eyes grew wide. "Kennedy, Robin, Faith!" Dawn launched herself at Kennedy. "How's Willow, have you seen the place, is it great? Wow, breath, Dawn, breath."

Kennedy laughed and held her back. "Wow, you should have stopped growing a year ago. Is that a third piercing?"

Kennedy saw her mistake when Dawn's eyes grew huge and when Buffy pushed past Xander and Giles and spun her sister around. She pulled her hair out of the way and her eyes bugged out. For a second she couldn't find words to describe the anger that flushed her face. Giles glanced at Xander and Robin stepped in front of Faith to keep her from interfering.

"Dawn, when did this… how?"

"Last week Angel's friend Chadwick was over and you let me stay with Angel since he was s ticking around…" Buffy spun on Angel.

"I had no idea. I had to leave on emergency, Cordelia had gotten into a mess and Wesley was outnumbered."

"It's not his fault. He left but Chadwick and I had already snuck out. He took me to this cool parlor and I got my ears pierced. I was going to do my belly button but the guy got hungry and Chadwick got me out of there before he realized I was human, or who's sister I was."

"It' was a vampire parlor?"

Dawn slinked back into Kennedy's arms as Faith pushed Robin to the side. "C'mon, B," She said. "Give the kid a break. She's as old as you and I were when you were blowing snakes up and I was killing Volcano Professors. She could have gotten a tattoo or pierced her—"

"Faith." Robin said the word, cutting off her next word just in time.

"Yeah, well instead she got another piercing. Plus side, she's alive to tell the tale."

"Thanks Faith," Dawn said at the same time that Buffy grumbled, "Stay out of it, Faith."

Knowing it was to late, and not wanting to cause a scene in front of everybody when they just got in, Buffy dropped the conversation and decided that she'd come back to it later, when she was alone with Dawn and could strangle her. Giles announced that he had an announcement, something only he could do, and everybody gathered toward Angel's company room.


	2. Hello, Goodbye

**_What needs to be said here has been said in the first chapter. If you haven't read it, what are you doing here?_**

_This chapter goes back to the first, and I know that there are parts that I repeated. Bare with me, it'll get more individual as it forwards into my imaginary Buffyverse. Mainly, Buffy learns more of the Chateau and it goes into more detail of when Buffy was brought back to life. Also, though it's a silent message, I hoped to add a bit of emotion. Once Buffy says hello to her friends, she has to say goodbye to another._

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CHAPTER 2—Hello, Goodbye

Angel's mansion was a big and luxurious place. Buffy wasn't aware of what he did for sure. Whatever it was it involved Cordelia, who had never gotten into college but worked with Angel, and Wesley, who'd followed Cordelia after Buffy told him off. Angel told Buffy it wasn't her, but that he didn't want her to feel obligated to be involved because as the longest ever living slayer, Buffy had a lot on her shoulders.

What Buffy did know was that Angel acquired this particular beauty, which had a nouveau look to it because he'd saved some billionaire from a group of vampires. The vampires were a bit on the smart side, stalking his place. They succeeded in killing his wife and his oldest son, but by then Angel had heard word that the billionaire's family had bad luck with the wild gang members who were brutally killing his family off.

Angel had come just in time to safe the man, who was tied up and being told how he'd be forced to watch his baby girl, some 2 year old toddler being sucked dry. Angel fought them all off, turning into a vamp in the process, all bumpy faced and sharp bone-white toothed. It scared the guy shitless, making him beg and cry when Angel picked up the scared and crying little girl.

He'd convinced the millionaire that he was a wandering vampire who had a soul, lost it, and gained it back and how he was fighting against his own kind because of the vile things they did. He handed the small child over to the man. Somehow in the process Angel got the mansion, fully furnished as thanks and they kept in touch. Buffy still couldn't get over how the small kid called Angel her Uncle, or that Angel was her godfather. L.A. had been necessary, painful and heartbreaking, but all in all it suited Angel.

"So this is our famous Angelus's dark and gloomy crypt?" Faith murmured, her head arched back and gazing at the high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. "It's a bit down in the dumps, unlike your last abandoned sanctuary."

"Faith." Angel said in his hello.

Xander went along with Faith's sarcasm. "Yeah, the place needed some fixing up, but it's looking almost human now." Dawn giggled but quickly looked away. Robin noticed this, and had to hide a smile. So young Dawn had a crush on Xander. That would be interesting.

"Angel," Buffy said. "This is Robin. He was my former employer—"

"—Now her employee—"

"—My former school principal—"

"—Now Faith's love bunny."

Buffy looked at Kennedy, Dawn and Xander. "Thank you, all." Faith had rolled her eyes, and Robin, who's dark features hid flushed faces, failed and showed a tint of dark purple.

"Mmhmm." Angel looked him up and down. "So what's it like being with a murdering lunatic?"

"EX!" Faith said. "I'm an Ex-murdering lunatic."

Robin had his arms around her and smiled. "Always interesting, never the same."

"I thought so too."

Robin looked at Faith when Angel said that. She shrugged. "You know I traveled. Don't worry, it was short. I got him to leave B, and B got him to leave me. Lots of detail, hoards of drama."

"Story of your life." They started kissing. Buffy held her hand up. "Ok, ok."

Dawn made gagging noises. She was to mature for them, but it was fun and half expected since she was the youngest in the group. "Get a room."

"And this is Kennedy Young. She was a potential back in Sunnydale, now she's my second."

"Your second, huh?" Angel glanced at Kennedy. She was dressed in punk clothes, her dark hair pulled in a sleek ponytail. From first glance he'd say she was half or full Mexican but definitely full beautiful.

"Lucky me," Faith spoke up again. "Being a 4 year veteran I get to be her first."

"And as I've been trained by my watcher since I was 9 that makes me one of the youngest potentials sent away in our day and better experienced than the other former potentials."

Dawn smiled. "You missed out on a lot, Angel. You remember Kendra, right? She was sent away from her parents to her watcher before she was 5 years old, so she had the most training. It's complicated."

Angel combed his hand through his hair. Buffy continued. "She's Willow's girlfriend and is here on behalf of Willow."

Everybody talked, mostly catching up on the past 6 months. Angel didn't have to much to say, only answered some of the questions directed to him, and most of them came from Kennedy and Robin. It seemed like old times to Buffy, who lectured her friends on not keeping track.

"She's been stressing on your all going AWAL." Dawn explained. "She killed 9 vamps tonight, blew up a next in some gross sewer last night killing 12 of them, and the night before she jumped in the middle of 6 vamps who were hunting some prostitute. If I had to follow her another night, I'd have come hunt you guys down and dusted you."

Buffy glared at Dawn who smiled her sweet innocent younger sister smile. Giles sighed. "Buffy, it was your idea to stay with Angel if he'd have you while we got things set up. There's chaos all around the world and we've been trying to keep a hand on it." Buffy looked away. It was her idea. She wanted Dawn away from a hellmouth for just a little bit before she threw her little sister at the demons, vampires and more apocalypses'. And so she'd done it. And while she'd been stressing over the lack of vamps in the area, Xander had been building and Giles had been regrouping.

"So what is Willow doing?" Buffy asked, looking toward Kennedy. Kennedy brushed her fingers through her hair and smiled proudly.

"She got together with a witch named Frank and they are looking for two other powerful witches. Together they'll do a few special things. One of them was an idea concocted by Faith." Kennedy looked to Faith and everybody followed suit. Faith's lips parted, almost to say she didn't want to talk but she knew that it was her idea, and thus her role to speak of it.

While Robin's large hands ran up and down her arm reassuringly Faith gathered her thoughts for the right words. "It's in our history. We have a natural pull toward vamps, whether it's to dust them or roll around under the covers with them." The way she worded it made Robin drop his head. A part of him wished she could maybe look at things more maturely, while another part was fighting hard not to laugh.

"We'll all be staying in the same house at one point or another. Legally, it'll belong to Buffy, which also means in a way it belongs to the brat over there." Dawn glared at Faith, who sent her a cocky smile. "But everybody else will be living there too. All the girls, me, Wood over here, Xander and Willow, Kennedy and sometimes Giles. Everybody who lives in the place will have a right to invite a vamp in, and that could be dangerous. So one of the spells Willow and her Wicca friends will be a type of charm. Only Buffy can invite vampires in."

"I'll tell you now, if a girl falls in love with a vampire, that'll freak them out." Kennedy said. "They'll hate you." It was apparent Kennedy was against this little spell.

"Kennedy, they'll hate me no matter what. All of them, at one point or another. But I have to agree, this is a factor. If girls are blinded or confused and invite a vampire or two or few in, then we could have a mess on our hands. Nice thinking Faith."

Robin smiled even wider, the pride swelling in his chest. "She don't think often, but when she does she hits them doozies." He yelped and rubbed his arm where Faith hit him, still smiling.

"They are also creating safe houses."

"Huh?"

Kennedy looked at Xander. It was his turn to explain. "I'm still doing the finishes on the Chateau. But the new slayers out there can't all wait. It's started."

"What has?" Buffy asked.

Giles stood up and started pacing. When he spoke his words came out like poetry, probably because of his British accent. "The girls woke that day in Sunnydale. So far Willow can estimate about 1800 of them from around the ages of 8 to 20. Seems that the older a potential got the potential in them shed."

"Means I was lucky. I barely made it before I started turning into a regular girl." Kennedy smiled. "Can't say I'm disappointed. Being a slayer is like nothing I can describe."

"Kick ass powers," Faith said.

"Nice healing techniques." Kennedy added.

"Helps if we were born hot too!" Faith's bright red lips flashed in a sexy smile.

"Anyways," Giles said. "If I may interrupt your interruption, the girls are waking and realizing. Say one of them is in a fight. She doesn't only win, she might brake a bone or two in the poor boy who attacked her."

Buffy snorted. "Serves the boy right for trying to fight with a girl in the first place."

"Slayers are naturally attracted to the lonely night. So now we've got girls who have been admitted into several hospitals for seeing things. Some of them have become hurt, while others feel they are losing their mind. If we aren't careful, we'll have another Salem on our hands."

Buffy shuddered at that thought. Memories of the MOO came back to her mind. Being tied to the stake and the burning books, Amy turning into a rat and Willow choking out her pleas of help.

"The world isn't ready to accept the supernatural." Giles said. "And it may never bee ready. So Willow is creating safe houses for those who need to escape. They'll be hidden and protected so only those who are permitted can see and access them. I'll be taking some of the new council with me to get some of these girls, and other witches from the coven are also working on gathering these girls."

Kennedy spoke up again. "She'll also be sending them a message through the mind soon. Willow has some sort of connection. Kind of like a mother to the children because she woke them up. She can feel their fright and she'll be sending them over very soon."

"But there's that problem." Angel said. "I don't know much, but I've heard word from underground of how Cleveland is a hard place to get to. It's overrun by powerful demons, high in the demon line. How have you been working without dieing?"

"Willow and her friends did another spell. That's why we're here. It's time Buffy showed up and… buffed them up!" Xander grinned at his stupid pun.

They all stayed up and visited. It was going to be a long day tomorrow getting to Cleveland and working things out. Buffy had tried to convince Dawn to stay until she cleared Cleveland out of the major demonic threats but they argued for no reason. Dawn insisted on going and Buffy felt to tired to argue. In her mind she felt sure that whatever they faced she could protect Dawn from it. All she had to do was keep Dawn inside the protected Chateau—mental note to find a better name for the place—until the coast was clear.

The sun would be coming up in an hour or so. Everybody decided to retire to their guest bedrooms to try to catch a few hours of sleep before their trip back to Cleveland but Buffy couldn't stay still. She'd been staring up at the moon when he came up behind her. His movements were so stealthy that she barely heard him and wouldn't if it wasn't for her keen super senses. Of course there was also the feel of him.

When they'd been together, nearly 5 years ago she'd come accusation to recognizing his presence even if she couldn't see him. Together they stood in silence, him a half a step behind her. When she began to walk he slowly followed her, keeping pace, but keeping distance. When he spoke his voice was quiet, careful.

"You'll do good there." He said. "You'll do good for those girls."

Maybe he could see the worry in her mind, maybe he couldn't but his words were along the same line as her thoughts. "I guess I'll just never stop changing the world."

This would be the first slayer safe haven ever, since this was the first time there was more than two slayers at the same time. That brought a thought to Buffy's mind. "I died twice." She said numbly. The memory was still clear as yesterday. Standing on the crazy-manmade sacrificing diving board above the doorway into the demonic parallel dimension, jumping in, the hot white pain she couldn't escape, so painful she couldn't scream, couldn't move. She remembered the release she felt as her world fell to darkness, then the rest was foggy. She didn't remember forms, sounds, only feelings. A feeling of warmth, safety and happiness.

A part of her, somewhere, knew she should have other memories but maybe they were blocked because it would be to happy. Then she felt the sudden burning as her first gasp of blocked oxygen filled her lungs. She remembered tasting the rotting air of the corpse she'd once been, remembered how lacking it was of the oxygen she needed. The pain her throat felt, then the sudden realization.

She was inside a white padded box, then the fear hit like a bolt and no thought came that she could dissect. A part of her got lost for a moment, lost to the hot wild rage of an untamed animal. It was bit's that seeped in when she finally came back into herself. The feeling of closed of claustrophobia, of desertion and betrayal. She'd beat at the box, tears streaming down her face. She'd barely been able to move in the cozy coffin she'd lain in for a year, maybe longer.

Her knuckles pained but she couldn't feel them till later, her nails broke but she didn't notice. The wood began to break and earth, rich, alive and cold as hatred fell on top of her, making her feel more closed off. When she'd broken enough to get through she was already buried in dirt, covered in insects that had wanted the rotting corpse she'd once been. She hadn't felt more closed off, more trapped and more alone as she dug through the hard packed earth.

Feeling all of those lost emotions, some that were new and coming back, some that had been buried like she'd once been, Buffy closed them off again, willing them to go away. _Forget._ She demanded of herself, and turned around to face Angel, who watched her quizzically.

"That one time, when you found me. That woke Kendra. And when she died it woke Faith. But I died again, as you know. I wonder… did another slayer awaken that none of us knew about?"

Angel waited a beat before answering. "Something I never thought about." He thought some more. "Maybe with one slayer alive you didn't awaken another slayer."

"I was alive when Kendra died and Faith came."

"But you'd already died. So maybe you've never been considered back in the work of the world. Maybe you're still considered dead, so when you did die again, you weren't really seen and you didn't wake another slayer."

Buffy wasn't sure she liked that idea. But that's why she had Angel. He was honest, even if the truth hurt. "Or maybe they works of the world knew I'd be back and knew all the slayers would wake, so they left it alone."

Angel didn't answer, but she knew already. That was impossible. Of course that brought the thought to rise. The impossible was possible. Vampires roamed the earth. The kind that burned in sunshine and shied from garlic, the kind that blew in the wind when they were staked. Demons who worked to find vengeance like Anya and Halfrek, ones who possessed like the hyenas; they all were alive, or dead, or immortal, and kicking. Well, except the ones Buffy had vanquished, and Anya and Halfrek.

They stood in silence some more. Then the made their way back to the mansion. When the door closed behind Angel Buffy turned into his arms and held onto him. She felt his hesitation and shushed him. "I'll be leaving. We won't see each other for a long time. Just hold me. Please, just hold me." It was a mistake, but he held her close.

She stood on her toes and placed a soft passionate kiss on his lips. It stirred hidden needs, unlocked closed doors in both of them but she let him go. "You've been kind and hospitable to Dawn and I even though you shouldn't have been. For that, I thank you."

Angel wanted to say something, Buffy wanted him to say something but they both knew and understood. Unspoken words were heard through the simple look they held between each other. Then Buffy turned, walked very gracefully up the stairs and toward the room she shared with Dawn. And Angel couldn't help but wonder when he'd see Buffy again, if he'd see her again.


	3. Taking the Town Back

**_What needs to be said here has been said in the first chapter. If you haven't read it, what are you doing here?_**

_We've already got our character re-introduction but I sort of go into more detail with Dawn, Rona, and Chao-Ahn. I bring back memories of Dawn when Gloria was after her and I mention the Buffybot again. Others are mentioned. I've brought the Hellions back as the slayers go out that first night and show those animals who's taking the town back over. Any demon weak yet smart enough would run away from the thought of 7 slayers working together to kill them off. It's an adventure with the girls taking back the town!_

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CHAPTER 3—Taking The Town Back

It was definitely different than L.A. the first time, Sunnydale, or L.A. the second time. Cleveland had to be more like L.A. with the big buildings but at the same time it related so well to Sunnydale for one thing. The Hellmouth. Even though it was overcrowded with hellions that liked to party and trash things, and at night it was jam-packed with vampires who ruled the place Buffy could tell that the climate, the city, and the life would be different and may take awhile to adjust too.

Keeping Dawn in the house was a chore that kept Buffy on her toes. Like she'd predicted, Dawn didn't want to stay put she wanted to fight the big bads. But Buffy remembered the horror Willow had went through when she witnessed what life was like without Buffy at Sunnydale, and how the hellmouth was taken over by the vampires and demons. And of course when Anya was still alive she did go into quite the descriptive story of how wonderfully drastic Buffy's removal had been to the world.

When Cordelia had made that wish, it changed everything. Although nobody remembered it all that well, they were all aware of what happened. Because Buffy never came to Sunnydale she became some heroic bad-assed vampire hunter who was all over the world, but mainly in Cleveland at the hellmouth, keeping the vamps at bay as best she could. And because she never came to Sunnydale the small town was taken over by the Master and everybody, Willow and Xander were turned into his right and left hand minions, and few people were alive and whatnot.

Buffy's alternate ego of sorts was in Cleveland, but came to Sunnydale and died. Which was oddly ironic in an unironic way. Buffy seemed to have a knack of dieing, and it was starting to bug her. When the wish was taken back and the world went back to normal it was Cleveland that was eventually taken over, around the time that Sunnydale was coming to an end. So now Buffy, Faith and Kennedy, with the help of former potential's Chao-Ahn and Rona were out kicking ass.

Chao-Ahn couldn't go back to a normal life. She'd left her home so suddenly, though it wasn't to her awareness at the time that she'd had to leave because of her wellbeing and safety, and the last thing she'd expected was to end up fighting vampires but that's what happened. When she 'ranaway' as her parents put it, she'd dishonored the family and was not welcome back. Though she was still very Asian at heart she was slowly but steadily learning English.

Her creamy white legs shot out and kicked a ugly leather-freaked hellion in the chest, sending him flying through a building. She stared through her strait as rain black hair and Asian-squinted eyes as glass shattered to the ground like crystal rain. A high pitched scream burst through her lungs as she lunged at him with a double edged ancient samurai sword. Buffy looked up, still feeling a bit responsible for her and Rona, just in time to get glimpse of a horned and pierced head rolling down the sidewalk.

"I get." Chao-Ahn said with a harsh Cantonese accent. She turned and started fighting with another hellion. Buffy felt for her. At first her parents had been worried of Buffy's odd behavior when she first became a slayer, but with time Joyce had excepted her, even if it was in a sort of denial. Chao-Ahn had been shunned, and she had to come back to the only people she could count on now.

Kennedy and Faith were surrounded by 5 hellions, all baring crazy rusting weapons of some sort so Buffy slashed her current demon in half and ran to help Rona. While fighting the First in Sunnydale Rona had been a whiny 17 year old who thought on the lower darker side of pessimism and had little to no faith in Buffy's leading tactics. She'd broken her arm and now bore a long scar down her left face, her battle wounds, but she'd almost outgrown the whining.

"You freaks smell so bad." She burst, her fists flying out like bullets. "You need to discover toothpaste and mouthwash." Her foot lashed out the same time she ducked to avoid being sliced in half by the hellion behind her. "It's so disgusting, fighting you ugly scabbers that I'm ready to puke!" Well, almost was spoken figuratively.

Buffy threw a round house only to get hit in the small of her back. The blow sent her flying and hitting a brick building. Like a bug that had been smacked with a newspaper, Buffy slowly slid down the brick and crumbled to the floor. "Oh," She let the breath escape as pain shot up her back. Being a slayer was horrible. Sure it was nice to have speed, strength and accelerated healing but pain was still pain and even though she didn't bruise easily, or fall down, pain was her middle name. Along with Anne, and Dead.

"Boofey!" Chao-Ahn came running to her side when the others continued to fight. When she screamed her name, due to the harsh accent it always sounded like she was saying buffet instead of Buffy. For some reason, even though Chao-Ahn still seemed to have nightmares of Giles and his horrifying pictures, she had grown very attached to Buffy. At times it was annoying, but at others it was kind of sweet. Right now it was annoying. Chao-Ahn had her back turned and her defenses down, which meant that Buffy watched as a hellion with only half a nose and a rotting ear jumped from the roof and at Chao-Ahn.

"Sorry!" Buffy impulsively kicked Chao-Ahn out of the way and grabbed a slightly rusted metal pipe from the ground next to her and flung it up just in time for it to be impaled into the hellion's gut. It screamed in pain but was cut short as Chao-Ahn's sword whistled. Buffy rolled just in time to miss the head that came at her and took a deep breath in.

"Boofey." Chao-Ahn was at her side helping her up. Buffy was breathing hard but when she looked down the alley she wasn't breathing at all. It was just her, just her mind playing tricks. Just the fog making figures that weren't really there.

Closing her eyes, she shook her head. That's it, she'd hit her head to hard when she hit the wall and was now seeing things. When she opened them again, the figure was gone, and the fog started to die down. If it wasn't clear to Buffy in the past she had to admit that she'd probably officially lost it. She saw things most people didn't. Vampires pretending to be people in malls were easy to spot because while the general people were naive enough not to notice the lack of reflection it was one of the first things that Buffy saw. Not even wanting to admit what it was Buffy thought she might be seeing now she concentrated on the present. It was Faith's voice that was heard and centered her spinning head on.

"Dammit don't you dare run," her words slashed angrier than Chao-Ahn's sword as she grabbed the chain from a broken swing set and swung it out, grabbing a fleeing hellion by the throat. It made a strangled sound as she pulled, and a deafening crack filled the air. Only the sound of fleeing feet and the slow oncoming pitterpatter of rain filled them now. "I wasn't finished with you, you ugly hellhounds!"

Rona dropped to a squat to catch her breath, more than relieved they were leaving. She was still not wrapping her brain around warped looking demons. Hellions were horrible, but even the changing of a vampires face wigged her out to much. Luckily the Hellions wouldn't be back. 7 slayers in one area was scary to them, so the few who survived would scatter and find some new poor defenseless town to infiltrate. Kennedy had hold of Faith who was trying to run after them. She turned on Kennedy with a string of profanity when Buffy grabbed her arm.

"It's over. Tonight is done."

Faith looked back toward the now disappearing beasts and sighed. She didn't want it to be over, she had so much more energy she wanted spent. As if reading her mind, Kennedy gave her a taunting smile. "Don't worry, Robin is at the Chateau and he's more then energized enough for you."

The look on Faith's face was off murder but she instead gave Kennedy a crooked smile and an airy laugh, swinging her sword in circles and sliding in almost intimidatingly into the hilt. "We are probably the only modern day girls who've ever had to use a sword and hilt besides those making medieval movies." The other girls watched in amazement. It took a couple years of practice to be able to come up with nice puns while fighting and to do tricks with steaks and other weapons without taking out an eye or a couple fingers. Faith had them, and Buffy definitely had them. The first slayer after Buffy's first death Kenya had been trained from the age of 5 and had what Dawn had called 'sick' moves.

"Ugely go? No more?" Chao-Ahn asked.

"They're gone." Buffy said. "And the sun's coming up. We should get back and get some rest. Tomorrow we've got vamps to chase out." Slayers had to be nocternal without choice since vampires could only run around in the daytime, Angel being an exception to that rule. But it was a future Buffy could see already. Sleeping from sun up till sunset and fighting vamps all through the night. Wishing for a nice warm bath and soft covers the girls all limped back to the chateau.

Back at the Chateau the girls all gathered around in Buffy's new kitchen. It took them less than half a minute to enter the house when a thunderous noise filled the place as Dawn came running down the stairs followed closely by Robin. As Robin ran toward Faith with a towel to wash off the other blood so he could see exactly where she got hurt and then lecture her about being more careful, Dawn ran to Buffy and went to give her a hug. She stopped midway then changed her mind.

"I love you, but this is just gross. You're so muddy and bloody and wet. Ugh." Then she changed the subject. "Did they go away? I remember when the Hellions tried to take over Sunnydale when you were…" She stopped, still feeling uncomfortable, sad and lonely again when thinking of the time that Buffy had died. "And it didn't take you that long to kill them off and chase the others away… was it the same over here?"

Robin and Faith broke off from there 60 second long kiss. "We Googled Cleveland on the internet. It says that the gangs and town raiders stuck around here hurting women, recruiting children and making it so many townspeople wanted to leave town and skip out."

"Yeah, we even read some blogs of people who had firsthand encounters with the hellions and are now alive to tell the story. They don't describe them as gangs or people, but gangs of demons. Most people think that they need to be placed into a loony bin but apparently the Hellions were attracted to the Hellmouth and have been here for awhile!" Dawn seemed way to excited about this, but she'd always had a knack at the research. Quite a few times Giles had said that she had strong potential to becoming a Watcher. Buffy was still unsure what she thought of that bit of news.

"Bad go. No return." Chao-Ahn said. "Boofey ass keekeeng!"

Dawn stared at Chao-Ahn with her mouth slightly parted. Buffy sighed. "Either she said I kicked ass or my ass got kicked."

"Uh…" A nervous laugh came from Dawn as she sent Chao-Ahn a thumbs up and a smile which were immediately returned.

"So can I go with you tomorrow? Can I? Please? Please? PLEAAAAAASE?" Dawn was 17. Her light brown hair was in curls today though it was naturally strait. She'd grown up so much in the past 3 years that she'd been with the Summer family. Buffy remember things that supposedly happened like going to the beach with their dad one week in the summer when they were younger but she knew that anything past Dawn's 14th birthday really didn't happen.

Dawn had been a key that the Goddess Gloria had wanted so she could open up the dimensions and return to her world. The only problem was that if Dawn opened the key it would remain open until her blood stopped flowing. It was a long and hard battle but in the end Dawn was kidnapped by Gloria's scab minions. She was taken to the top of the sacrifice tower which looked more like a very unstable diving board built by the crazy people who were those that Gloria had sucked their sanity from to keep from going mad. The war was going, Buffy and her friends at the bottom fighting the scabs and Gloria followers off, Buffy and the Buffybot that Spike had gotten guilt for his own happy moments fighting Gloria, and Spike trying to protect Dawn.

Spike failed, and though Gloria was detained from bleeding Dawn, a demon with part human form that Dawn was acquainted with and both she and Spike had done business with slit her several times and she had thin streaks on her stomach. Her blood had opened the portal to all of the dimensions which basically was an apocalypse of sorts. Gloria was defeated and Buffy ran up to save Dawn. However the only way to close the portal was for Dawn to die. But Buffy recalled saying that their blood was Summers blood so she sacrificed herself for her sister to be able to live.

So while Dawn wasn't REALLY Buffy's sister, in mind, body and heart she was and would forever be Dawn Summers, Buffy's little annoying temper tantrum running moody and rebellious sister. And just the thought of Dawn running around tomorrow with a steak in her hands trying to kill a mob of angry and hungry vampires scared Buffy more than the thought of how close Dawn came to dieing in Sunnydale all those times.

"Dawn, honey, this is going to be different." Buffy started. "It's not the same as Sunnydale. You've never really taken on more than a few vampires at a time and I worry. Not that you are incapable, but that the vampire is better and I can't protect you. I don't want to lose you so—"

"Buffy this is so stupid! I fought in that war in Sunnydale with the Ubervamps right beside you. I think I can handle a few measly vampires!"

"Who are overconfident and will go strait for your throat!" Buffy screamed back.

"I can handle myself."

"You're not properly trained."

"Well duh! You wouldn't train me with the potentials last year, of course I'd be way better now if you trained me!"

"You're to young."

"Oh don't you pull that on me, Buffy!" Dawn turned to Faith. "You think I'm ok to take them on… don't you?"

Faith looked from Dawn to Buffy. Buffy was looking at her with death in her eyes and Dawn was looking for a get out of jail free card. "Hey, keep me outta this." She said. "I go for B and you kill me, I go for Dawn and B rips my throat out like a hungry vamp. Ain't gonna happen."

"Kennedy?" Dawn said, hopefully turning to Kennedy.

"I think that Buffy is right. Wait till the next day when we take down the major mobs and they get a message, then you can come out with us.'

"It's not fair. Just because I'm not a slayer doesn't mean you can treat me like just any other human!" She left the room and the door slamming echoed the house.

Buffy flinched. "If that's how I acted with my mom I don't know how she survived." But if Buffy recalled she didn't really slam doors, she let her mom believe she was in her room while she snuck out and killed vamps. Just the mere thought of Dawn doing that sent her heart to a panic.

"Don't worry, B," Faith said pulling out a chicken wing from the fridge. "She'll come around. Especially since she wants to tag along and try to get killed in a couple days."

"Thanks Faith."

"Anytime."

"I'm going to go upstairs and keep an eye on her, feel free to go to your rooms, you remember where they are right?"

"Yeah," Rona said. "We're like DA's in college. Special rooms and all."

"I can't wait till we get some action here," Vi said. They talked as they walked toward their rooms, Chao-Ahn trying to keep up with their conversations.

The sun was peaking in the horizon. Buffy stood at her window and stared at it with burning eyes and a fresh smell. It had been awhile since she'd stood alone and watched the sun rise. It was obvious that the vamp problem would be bad and hoping was a waist of energy but she hoped to god that the vampires would have gotten word of the many slayers and didn't come out the next sundown. Feeling sleep cloud her brain Buffy walked to her bed and lay under the covers. Closing her eyes she first saw Angel and felt a longing for him she'd never realy gotten rid of. But it was Spikes image she fell asleep to as she succummed to sleep and a vicious dream she'd soon wake up from.


End file.
